We caught up with new-to-the-scene Broadway composer Eddie Perfect about obscure musical theatre history, creepy old guys, and the whole being dead thing.

In a Broadway season marred by the premature demises of many shows, a surprise hit emerged from the unlikeliest source material: Beetlejuice the musical has been breaking box office records at the Winter Garden, and come January, will be the only musical of the season besides Hadestown still playing Broadway.

This writer, like so many others, absolutely loved Beetlejuice. A big part of its success can be attributed to the clever and catchy score (which was recently released as a 2-LP vinyl set by Ghostlight Records), written by Australian musician Eddie Perfect). Hypable spoke with Eddie Perfect about creating the songs of Beetlejuice and his experiences writing for Broadway.

How did you end up composing the music for Beetlejuice?

I had been coming up to New York, once every four to six months, to go see shows, try and take meetings, and get on that great big writer list in the sky. I didn’t really feel like it was going anywhere.

I found out that Beetlejuice was in development. They had a script that was kicking around, they had a director attached. Warner Brothers were producing it, but they didn’t have a composer-lyricist on board yet. And I asked my agent if I could pitch on it. And he asked Warner Brothers and everybody said “no” because it was already out to pitch with a whole bunch of quite fancy Broadway composer-lyricists. My agent was like, “Look, you’re Australian, you’ve got a weird name, all of your source material is very Australian. They don’t know you, they don’t want to extend the pitch.”

So I said, “What if I just wrote two songs for free?” They agreed to that, sent me the script, and asked me to write a song for Beetlejuice and a song for Lydia.

I really turned myself inside out because [it was] the first whiff of an opportunity to write something in North America. In the process of writing the songs, I was sending demos back and forth [with] the two book writers, Anthony King and Scott Brown. We seemed to be getting along. [Director] Alex Timbers really wanted me to involve the writers in the creation of the pitch songs; his theory was that “if you guys don’t collaborate well, then there’s no point.”

We sent [the songs] off and then I waited. Three months later, I got a call from my agent saying I got the gig, which I was not expecting. I just thought it would be an opportunity to put some writing under the nose of a Broadway director, and also show that I could write songs for an American audience. So it was like a dream come true.

Did those songs you wrote end up in the show?

They did. I actually ended up writing three songs. I wrote an opening number called “Death’s Not Great,” which didn’t end up in the show. But the other two songs did: Beetlejuice’s “The Whole Being Dead Thing” and Lydia’s “Dead Mom.”

Were there a lot of songs that you wrote during the whole process that didn’t end up in the show?

Yeah, there are probably more songs cut from the show than are in the show. The script was very different in the beginning. It opened in a completely different way. We were really working hard to find out who Beetlejuice was, [and] what the rules of the world were, because they’re not really explained in the film. And then also try[ing] to tell a new story through the lens of Lydia.

Over the course of development, we had lots of different scenarios where Lydia met her mother in the Netherworld and they had a song together. Where Otho was a cult leader. Lots of different scenarios… I probably wrote about six different opening numbers. Charles and Delia had songs that sometimes never even made it into the mouths of the actors. I’d say there are probably about 25 cut songs from Beetlejuice.

I love all the references Beetlejuice makes in the opening number. Tell me about the “Rodgers, Hart, and Hammerstein here” line.

Alan Jay Lerner has got this great autobiography with a terrible title called “The Street Where I Live.” There’s this incredible anecdote about hanging out with Lorenz Hart after he stopped working with Oscar Hammerstein. Towards the end of his life [Hart] obviously had a huge drinking problem, and they’re hanging out in a hotel room: Alan Jay Lerner and Hart. Rodgers and Hammerstein had just written Oklahoma. And Oklahoma was a humongous hit, it was like Hamilton. [Lerner and Hart] were sitting in a hotel room, and they decided to put on the radio. And every channel they turned it to was playing songs from Oklahoma. And just how sad and depressing that was for Hart!

I love musical theater. I love the history of musical theater. I’ve committed my life to creating musicals, and also consuming them. I love the artform passionately. I’m also aware that I’m an outsider, being an Australian and just sort of turning up on Broadway without anyone really knowing who I am. I guess one of my concerns is that people think that I don’t have a respect or a love or a connection to the artform.

That’s going to be an Easter egg that only a few people will get. “Everybody gets on fine here, like Rodgers, Hart, and Hammerstein here.” Which is probably the most uncomfortable trio of people you could imagine from the world of musical theater. So that was an obscure attempt to say, “Hey, you know what? I love and appreciate that I am here, and I love and appreciate this artform.”

I love how the lyrics in the opening number are adapted to wherever it’s being performed. Do you write them as the opportunities present themselves, or do you have a whole stack of prewritten ones?

I rewrite it for every specific occasion. I’m quite happy to keep rewriting it forever, I really enjoy it. I’m happy to do that because “The Whole Being Dead Thing” was never intended as an opening number. It was originally when the Maitlands first met Beetlejuice. He sang “The Whole Being Dead Thing” and it was sort of a song of seduction, trying to convince them to work with him. So the lyrics were quite different. Now that is on the album, it’s “The Whole Being Dead Thing Part Two,” but that used to be a lot longer.

When we went to DC, we wanted to rewrite the opening number to be really about death, and the fact that humans are terrified of death. Beetlejuice is going to navigate the audience through a night which is essentially about death. When we did it in DC, I rewrote it to be a lot more like a twisted version of “Comedy Tonight” [from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum]. To make fun of Broadway traditions, [to] break down the fourth wall. But also to tell people [that] this is going to be comedic, this is going to be dark, and you’re going to be okay. You’re in safe hands.

Because we felt like the opening number in DC was kind of an assault: Beetlejuice came out and punched the audience in the face. Half the audience were on board, and the other half of the audience were like, “I hate this character.” On Broadway, it’s a little more gentle.

Also calling to attention the fact that audiences nowadays are able to be offended pretty easily, and we wanted to give an audience permission to be on the inside of the joke. To be told up front that there are going to be jokes about death all night, and to give them permission to laugh at that. I think that worked; that made the Broadway version more successful.

The song “Creepy Old Guy” could have gone so wrong in so many ways, but it ends up being a comedic highlight of the show. What was the process of crafting that like?

At the time I wrote that a few years ago… there was a viral video of women who would put GoPro cameras on themselves and walk around New York to show just how often women are sexually harassed in the streets. Sometimes they’re old dudes. I’m like, “What [do] these guys think is going to happen? [Do] they think that there’s any version where there’s success?”

So when I wrote the song, I was like, “Well, obviously it’s a big plot point of the movie: Beetlejuice wants to marry Lydia.” And my tendency is to just lean into the wrongness of something. So I thought, “Well, if she’s trying to play a con on him – trying to con the conman – and she has to convince him that she is genuinely wanting to marry him.” In order to give her agency, I wanted to have this satirical weapon: you’re finally getting what you want, because who wouldn’t want a creepy old guy? It was always intended to really be a big “F you” to those people who harass women in the streets.

When we first pitched the song, I remember the producers being very afraid of it. Some of the lyrics in there were probably a little more raw than they are now. I think that in Washington DC, maybe because of the tone of the rest of the show, that felt uncomfortable. Half the audience just thought it was a really gross song and didn’t see the satirical point to it. So that was disappointing, but it seems to work on Broadway. Thank God!

Which songs came easily to you, and which ones were harder to crack?

“Whole Being Dead Thing” took a really long time to write in the first place, and I’ve been fixing it and changing it and rewriting it for four years. So that song’s had a lot of attention.

“Say My Name” had an epic amount of attention. That’s basically like a tennis match between Beetlejuice and Lydia. It had multiple verses and other sections. At one point, they had a rap battle. That got cut, maybe for time, or maybe because Hamilton came along and it just seemed like it was jumping on that bandwagon. That one was like putting a jigsaw together, rather than painting a picture.

No one really knows how long it takes you to write a certain idea, and I don’t think you can necessarily hear the difference, if it ends up being a good song. “What I Know Now” came out really quickly. So did “Barbara 2.0.” That was the last song I wrote, while we were in tech. I just had an idea about the kind of pace and the energy I wanted. And while we were teching, I just ran up to the hotel lobby piano, and that one just spilled out really quickly… to the extent that we didn’t have it in rehearsals. [But] by the time we got up to that point in Act Two where it was time to tech, I had the whole new song and we put it in the show.

So yeah, it’s just horses for courses – some are quick, some are slow. It’s hard to love the slow ones as much, as a composer, because they can make you feel like a little bit of a fraud. You took so bloody long to make it, it feels forced, but I guess the proof is in the pudding.

When you were writing all the music for Beetlejuice, how much did you have Alex Brightman in mind? Because he’s such a force of nature on that stage, I can’t even imagine anyone else doing the role. I know he’s been with the show since very early in the development process.

You do really begin to hear a specific actor once you’re writing. You have to find that actor that really clicks with the material. What’s difficult is sometimes the actor can do development, but then not do the show or not be available, and you have to invite a new voice into the room.

But we’re really fortunate to have Alex. The best thing I can say about him is [that] he is courageous. He will try any joke. He will go anywhere. He is not shy. He’s not embarrassed. He loves darkness. He’s super inventive. So that’s one of those situations where you can rewrite stuff and go, “I know Brightman’s extensive bag of tricks. I know he’s going to do this really well.” And then you would give it to him and he would make it even better. So it was just a joyous match.

What would you say were some of your biggest influences as a composer?

What turned me on to musical theatre was definitely Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, which is still my favorite score. I just love the dark sensibility of it. I remember there were two cassettes in my dad’s car when we went on camping trips in Australia. One of them was Sweeney Todd with Angela Lansbury and George Hearn, a live recording my dad taped off the radio in Australia. And the other one was Pirates of Penzance, wierdly, which also had Angela Lansbury in it (and Kevin Kline). I think I can still hear those two influences in my writing.

But I also have lived a life of music in Australia, playing everything from jazz, classical music, pop, South African traditional music, gospel… In Australia, you have to do a lot of different things to keep your boat afloat. So I love a really broad range of music and I think it’s really important to have ears outside of Broadway cast albums. Because musical theatre is not a style; it is an umbrella under which any style of music can be employed to tell a story, or solve a problem, or create a sense of the character, or convey style and tone. So I just think it’s really important to listen to a lot of music. I obviously try and keep up with what people are recording cast album-wise, but I also listen to all different kinds of music.

I love how each character has a completely different style when they sing. You can immediately tell the difference between a Beetlejuice song versus Lydia song.

Yeah, absolutely. Beetlejuice sort of has that kind of slinky, loping, ska, zydeco kind of style… sliding into a bit of reggae, jazz and rock…

Lydia is much more what I would call “old 90s grunge,” albeit as a more Broadwayified version of that. I tended to write her stuff on a guitar as opposed to piano. Because I like the idea of it being a song (especially “Dead Mom”) that any 12-year-old girl in her bedroom, with a electric guitar and an amp, who knows a few power chords, could play. So that was total grunge, total Nirvana, Green Day, Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam… all those bands that were very popular when I was in high school in the 90s and learning guitar. So that was her sound.

What has it been like to see such hardcore fandom of your work, with people dressing up for the show and everything?

It’s been a lifeline.

When I got to New York and I was writing this show, I was writing songs for King Kong as well. And for a while there, it looked like the whole thing was just a fucking disaster. That I’d dragged my family over to New York chasing this lifelong dream, and then it was all just going to go to shit, and I would never get another chance to write another piece again. It was quite depressing.

After the poor critical reception of Kong, which was not a positive experience before that anyway… And then Beetlejuice opening in DC to such terrible reviews… I was like, “Oh, this is the end of the road for me as a writer in America. I’m just gonna have to pack my family up, pack my bags, and go back to Australia. And just try and learn how to keep going with the disappointment of how things have gone. And maybe I’d never get a chance to come back.”

So that all sounds very depressing and sad, but that’s where I was at. We didn’t get the greatest reviews for Beetlejuice when we opened, but we knew we had something because we could feel it in the house every night. All we wanted was to make sure that the reviews didn’t get in the way of the audience [that] we knew we were building. Over the course of previews, the show really grew, and word of mouth got stronger and stronger.

And it wasn’t really until we got nominated at the Tony Awards that we got the golden chance to perform at the Tonys. We took a really big risk, we were like, “Let’s take our opening number and rewrite the lyrics.” So in front of millions of people watching at home, there were jokes that had never been tried in front of any humans. We were swinging for the fences, we had nothing to lose. No one really expected Beetlejuice to succeed. And some people were actively cheering on its demise. But the combination of the Tony Awards performance and the release of the cast album, it changed the narrative around Beetlejuice.

It managed to shake off this weird negative vibe that it had been shrouded in since Washington DC. We found a new audience, and we’ve found a fantastic audience. And not only has it been good for the health of the show, but it’s a show that’s inspired a lot of creativity in our fans. The Winter Garden Theater is full of fanart. Every day, there are countless covers of the songs on YouTube, people making animations and animatics, people responding to the show in super creative ways.

So to answer your question, it feels like being saved. I’m so grateful for its success. Not just for me, but for my kids and my wife, who was starting to think, “Jesus Christ, I backed the wrong one horse here.”

What has been the most surprising part of being a Broadway composer?

In my naivete, I was a little surprised by some of the negativity around myself and around our show.

There is a kind of a culture, that almost reminds me of sport. This culture exists in Australia too, so this is not me having a swing at New York. People have shows that they love. And they want that show to succeed. But they really do want other shows to fail. And I was a little taken aback by that at first. And there’s a lot of politics. Because there’s a lot of money at play, there’s also a huge amount of fear.

But that’s one of the negative things. One of the positive things is: I was surprised and delighted by the sheer level of love and devotion and skill and drive that people working on Broadway have. How much people commit their entire lives to this artform, and how amazing they are at it, and how much pressure people can work under and still come up with the goods.

It’s so exciting, because you really think you know how something’s going to go. You can start a show, and everyone loves it out of town. You’re like, “This is going to be a big hit,” and then it isn’t. Or you can be like us: we were not a big hit out of town, and everyone’s expecting it to be a turkey, and then it isn’t. So you just have to put your head down and do your thing.

You could call it surprise, but it’s mostly awe at what happens on Broadway. The combination of art and commerce, there’s nothing like this anywhere in the world. So yes, it’s a little more brutal than I thought it would be. But it’s also one of the most endlessly inspiring and amazing risk-taking creative ventures in the world.

Thanks so much to Eddie for speaking with us! If you want to listen to his music from Beetlejuice, it’s available in all kinds of formats on the cast album. And we highly recommend going to see the musical on Broadway!